


When It Comes to Custom

by Laura JV (jacquez)



Category: Star Trek
Genre: Dialogue, Plotless, Worldbuilding, symbiotic red algae
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-11-22
Packaged: 2018-02-26 13:30:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2653712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacquez/pseuds/Laura%20JV
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim and Spock neglect their chess game because apparently Vulcan marriage contracts are riveting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When It Comes to Custom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Beatrice_Otter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beatrice_Otter/gifts).



> Thank you to niqaeli for taking a look at this.
> 
> Beatrice Otter asked to see this (despite its plotlessness), and I suspect you'll recognize some echoes of your own work in there, Beatrice! 
> 
> The title comes from "Uhura's Song", by Janet Kagan: "There is very little 'of course' when it comes to custom."

Jim twiddled a captured pawn and watched Spock through the levels of the board. There was a faint crease between Spock’s brows; it had been there for days, ever since the Babel delegation had departed, and Jim returned to duty. "Distracted?" he asked, and Spock’s face smoothed out into his usual — off-duty, and with Jim, anyway — expression of calm amusement. 

"Not notably," Spock replied, and moved a rook.

"Things seemed easier with your parents, by the time they left," Jim said, frowning at the board.

"Indeed." He could see that the line between Spock’s brows had reappeared, when he looked out of the corner of his eyes. 

"What is it?"

Spock dropped his chin and frowned, faintly. "My parents were understandably disappointed at the end of my marriage. My mother asked if I wished T'Pau to arrange another."

Jim opened his mouth, closed his mouth, and blinked. "I. Huh. Sometimes it’s clear just how little I really know about Vulcans," he said. "T’Pau would…arrange a marriage for you?"

"She is the matriarch of my clan," Spock said. "I am technically under her jurisdiction, though of course as an adult I have considerable autonomy."

"But not absolute autonomy."

Jim had known Spock long enough to be able to read most facial expressions; this one was "abject horror". "No individual being has absolute autonomy, Jim. This is a central tenet of Surak’s philosophy. Our actions affect others and such effects must be considered logically." 

Jim moved his bishop up a level. "May I ask a…possibly intrusive question?"

Spock’s look of amusement returned. "Jim. You may ask anything of me." His voice had warmed noticeably.

"It’s about Vulcan marriage."

Spock quirked an eyebrow at him. "You have been to our place of koon-ut kali-fee. What secrets do you think I am keeping from you?"

Jim smiled back. "Not a secret, really, but — your parents. Your father gave your mother orders?"

"Yes."

"But T’Pau is the head of your clan?"

"Yes."

"Can her husband order her around?"

"Her husband is not of our clan."

"Is that a yes?"

"It is not."

"I don’t understand."

Spock cocked his head. "I am not certain what you are asking."

"Well, why can your mother be ordered around by your father, but T’Pau can’t be ordered around by her husband?"

"Ah." He frowned, faintly. "Jim, this is not an easy thing to put into Standard. The concepts do not translate well. I shall do my best." He steepled his hands in front of him. "The simplest explanation, the one most non-Vulcans know, is that Vulcan is patriarchal. This is untrue, or at least, inaccurate and incomplete. A more complete and somewhat more accurate description would be that Vulcan clan membership is patrilineal, under most circumstances; Vulcan clan structure is matriarchal, under most circumstances."

"Most circumstances?"

"Marriage contracts may be structured in many different ways," Spock answered. "The contract between my parents is that of a freely-chosen marriage between adults, in which one person has severed their own clan affiliation and joined the clan of their spouse. My mother is therefore a subordinate member of our clan, and as such must follow the orders of members senior to her, including my father."

"And…your marriage?" 

"An arranged child-marriage, in which T’Pring both retained her clan affiliation and became a subordinate member of mine. This is because I am of the House of Surak; her parents were reinforcing an alliance that has existed between our Houses for a thousand years."

"Has that been destroyed by — what happened?"

"Of course not," Spock said. "Why would it be?"

"Well, it’s — on Earth, business empires would fall over something like that. Blood feuds, if it happened between the wrong kinds of people."

"Barbaric."

"A bit."

"Neither clan would abandon an alliance of such long standing over the kali-fee," Spock said, "unless I had died, or killed her because she challenged. Such things happened, long ago."

Jim took a breath, and some things snapped together in his head. "I — that whole thing. When Nurse Chapel tried to bring you soup — you said it was — undignified for a woman to be a servant?"

"It is undignified for a woman to play servant to a man who is not hers," Spock said. "Yes. If I were — " he stopped, frowned again. "This is another concept that does not translate well, Jim. If I were married, and my wife were ill, I could of course prepare her a meal, and bring it to her, or she could do the same for me. But to — for a woman who is not married or betrothed, to do such a thing, unsolicited, it is a — an act that should not happen. If — if an unmarried man made such a request of an unmarried woman, it would constitute a betrothal if she agreed. If I had accepted her offer, when I was pledged elsewhere, it would be —" He took a deep breath. "Jim, I do not know how to phrase this."

"It would be…like having an affair?"

"My understanding is that an affair is a sexual or romantic relationship, outside of an agreed-upon partnership."

"Yes, usually."

"To accept such an offer is a much more serious a transgression than an affair would be. A sexual relationship with one not one’s spouse — this is acceptable, provided the parentage of children is known and assigned properly. If I had not released T’Pring, I expect she would have raised Stonn’s children alongside mine, but as members of his clan or hers." 

"I don’t know any human cultures that do that," Jim said, carefully, because this was getting into parts of Vulcan culture that he suspected no human — save maybe Amanda — had ever heard of, and he’d always rather assumed that Spock’s conception of marriage was a little more…human. "So she — a subordinate member, you said? Could you order her around?"

"If she had remained my wife, then yes, in the proper circumstances, just as in the proper circumstances my father can order my mother."

"So not all the time."

"Of course not."

"Could you order her to not be with Stonn?"

Spock’s abject-horror expression returned. "That would be unconscionable." He stared at Jim, something oddly stricken in his face. "Jim, what is a marriage, to you?"

"I — you know, outside of performing the ceremonies on board, I’ve never had to put it into words. It’s just — a marriage. Two people deciding to join their lives together."

"Ah." Spock’s face cleared. "That is not what a Vulcan marriage is. Two individuals marry, yes; but clan and House, behavior and rank, affiliation and obligation, those are all a part of the joining. Because I am of the House of Surak, anyone I would marry would be a subordinate member of my House, would be obligated to follow certain orders related to clan functions. But she would never be expected to be personally subordinate to me, in any individual sense. So when you saw my father order my mother to attend, they were both acting in an official capacity, as representatives of clan and House and Vulcan."

Jim opened his mouth, closed his mouth, picked up the pawn again, and set it down. His chest felt tight. "So, ah." He sat back and crossed his arms. "Are you going to do it? Have T’Pau arrange things, I mean."

Spock looked at him for a long moment, the subtle set of his features conveying nothing but cool reserve. Jim held still, and held his breath, though he had no idea why. "No," Spock said, softly. "No, I think I shall wait, for a time."


End file.
